13. How would such a wisdom differ from so-called nature? (In the Soul)
wisdom occupies the first rank, and nature the last. Nature is only
the image of wisdom; now, if nature occupy no more than the last rank,
she must also have only the last degree of the reason that enlightens
the Soul. As illustration, take a piece of wax, on which the figure
impressed on one side penetrates to the other; and whose well-marked
traits on the upper face appear on the lower face only in a confused
manner. Such is the condition of nature. She does not know, she only
produces, blindly she transmits to matter the form she possesses, just
as some warm object transmits to another, but in a lesser degree, the
heat it itself possesses. Nature does not even imagine: for the act
of imagining, inferior as it is to that of thinking, is nevertheless
superior to that of impressing a form, as nature does it. Nature
can neither grasp nor understand anything; while imagination seizes
the adventitious object and permits the one who is imaging to know
what he has experienced. As to nature, all it knows is to beget; it
is the actualization of the active potentiality (of the universal
Soul). Consequently, Intelligence possesses intelligible forms; the
(universal) Soul has received them, and ceaselessly receives them from
her; that is what her life consists of; the clearness which shines in
her is the consciousness she has of her thought. The reflection which
(the Soul herself projects on matter is nature, which terminates the
series of essences, and occupies the last rank in the intelligible
world; after her, there is nothing but imitations (of beings). Nature,
while acting on matter is passive in respect (to the Soul). The (Soul),
superior to nature, acts without suffering. Finally, the supreme
(Intelligence) does not (itself) act on the bodies or on matter.